The finger-pointing didn’t let up in Washington on Saturday as the government shutdown battle grew more bitter.
President Trump and his allies upped the ante with a new TV ad calling Democrats “who stand in our way . . . complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants.”
Democrats launched their own ad volley against vulnerable Republican senators to tar them with blame for the shutdown — and tried to lay the problem at Trump’s feet.
“Negotiating with President Trump is like negotiating with Jell-O,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, said on the Senate floor as he slammed the president for shifting positions Friday during last-ditch talks.
“Schumer is going to have to up his game a little bit and be a little bit more honest with the president of the United States,” Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney countered in a White House press conference.
The White House insisted that negotiations over immigration policy — including the fate of people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, who were brought to the US as children — will remain stalled until Democrats agree to reopen the government.
Trump would sign a compromise resolution that would restore federal funds for a three-week window, White House legislative director Marc Short said. The Senate rejected a four-week funding bill late Friday.
Short accused Democrats of “conducting a 2-year-old[’s] temper tantrum in front of the American people.”
Trump remained behind the scenes. He talked by phone with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, the White House said.
He greeted the day — the one-year anniversary of his inauguration — with a string of tweets that sardonically thanked Democrats for a shutdown that Republicans believe works to their political advantage.
“This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present. #DemocratShutdown,” Trump tweeted at 6:33 a.m.
“Democrats are holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration,” he added at 9:27 a.m. “Can’t let that happen!”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi responded in kind, displaying a tweet from May in which Trump called for a “good ‘shutdown’ . . . to fix mess.”
“Happy anniversary, Mr. President, your wish came true,” she said at an afternoon press conference. “You wanted to shut down — the Trump shutdown is all yours.”